1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for launching a mock bird into the air in order to assist in bird-dog training and, more particularly, to an automatic, remotely controlled mock bird launching device to assist in bird-dog training.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the sport of hunting and, particularly bird hunting, dogs may be used to retrieve the bird after the bird has been shot and fallen to the ground. Such dogs are known as bird-dogs. While certain breeds of dogs are instinctively better for such work over other breeds of dogs, they still have to be trained to recognize and retrieve the fallen bird.
Mock birds, dummy birds or bumpers as they are known in the art, may be used in training bird-dogs. Such mock birds are generally a padded, cloth covered bag of various sizes. The mock birds can be treated with various bird scents in order to simulate a particular type of fallen bird. Scented or not, the mock birds are thrown or launched into the air in order to fall to the ground, thus simulating a shot bird. Once the mock bird has fallen to the ground, the bird-dog is commanded or is trained to automatically fetch or retrieve the mock bird.
While the mock birds may be manually thrown, this is awkward and not an effective method. Thus, it is known to have a mock bird launcher. However, prior art automatic launching devices for mock birds hold only one mock bird at a time and thus need to be reloaded. Therefore, each time a mock bird is to be launched, the user needs to go to the launcher and load a mock bird. Further, these devices utilize pyrotechnic solid or gaseous chemical propellants that can pose a fire and safety hazard.
What is thus needed is an automatic mock bird launching device that can hold and launch a plurality of mock birds.
What is further needed is a mock bird launching device that does not utilize pyrotechnic solid or gaseous chemical propellants.
What is even further needed is a remote controlled, automatic mock bird launching device that can be located at a point away from the user.